John Naughton rips into the sycophantic nature of tech journolism when it comes to Microsoft.
" Microsoft is such a powerful company that it never seems to occur to reporters that its leaders might be fantasising. It's the aphrodisiac effect again....But Microsoft has become an embarrassing shadow of its former self."

Ubuntu is known as Linux for Human Beings...PC-BSD, on the other hand, "has been designed with the casual computer user in mind.

Has the time come at last to live a Microsoft-free life? That thought crossed my mind yesterday morning as I read an announcement from IBM that (with Canonical Inc.) it was offering a new Linux-based virtual desktop suite that, at user prices as low as $59, would compete directly with the iconic Microsoft Office.

Recent articles I have read by people complaining about how things on Linux do not work like they do on Microsoft led me to coin the phrase Microsoft Trained Brain Syndrome (MTBS). The problem is that people who have lived, worked, and played in a homogeneous Microsoft computing paradigm are lost and confused when they encounter a different paradigm.

As most people reading here already know, I work for Microsoft as a technology evangelist. However, writing this blog, as well as whatever else I do online in the social media space is entirely my own choice, and not Microsoft’s. Keep that in mind as you sit down, relax, and listen as I tell you a story…

"Did the Free Software Foundation meet their 2007 pledge drive goal? Will DefectiveByDesign try to stamp out DRM at the Boston Public Library? Does Stallman like the OLPC Project enough to replace his thinkpad with an XO? Will the SAMBA team finally get to see Microsoft's top-secret networking protocols? Where's RMS this month? Is the micro vs monolithic kernel debate back again? The answers to these and other mind-boggling questions that are on everyone's mind can be found in this month's GNU and FSF news summary..."

Adé Oyegbola, CEO of LANCOR, the company that says it is suing OLPC, was gracious enough to answer some of the questions I sent to the company and to the attorney representing it in the threatened litigation. I'll present the questions and answers, along with some photographs he sent as attachments, as he presents at least an outline of his case.

Computer people are fine human beings, but they do a lot of harm in the ways they "help" other people with their computer problems. Now that we're trying to get everyone online, I thought it might be helpful to write down everything I've been taught about helping people use computers.

Another day, another company developing Linux-based tech falls into line with Microsoft's intellectual property wonks. Japanese Flash maker I-O Data Device Inc has agreed to cough up an undisclosed sum of cash to Microsoft under a Linux software deal. This is the latest such agreement Microsoft has made with a tech company that uses Linux in its products.